If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down headlong,
for it is written, He shall give His Angels charge over Thee,
and with their hands they shall hold Thee up, lest at any time
Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.

We began this text before, and in our meditations we saw what
wreaths and windings the old serpent had, to turn himself round,
or at length, to pull in, or let out, as he listed; that first
he would have Christ not to trust God at all, but to shift for
himself, and make the stones His bread; and then to do nothing
else but trust Him, do nothing Himself but go down headlong into
mischief, and rely upon God's mercy for it that He should never
take anyhurt by the matter; for lest any man shouldtell Him that presumption in such a case is no good divinity,
he will prove it out of the written Word of God, You must not
deny it, for it is written, He shill give His Angels charge over
Thee, &e.

St. Paul tells us that the devil's temptations are fiery darts,
and this was one of them. The fire that prepared it went before,
and it was still wrought upon that anvil, si sis Filius Dei,
'if Thou be the Son of God;' he would try Him here. And the
dart being so wrought, we have seen also how it was cast; it
was cast when he bade Christ cast himself down headlong, 'If
Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down headlong;' so far we
went already. Now arc we to come to the third point, which is
the very point of the dart, the sharpening it, and the cost bestowed
upon it, to make it [71/72] enter the better; that is, the place
of Scripture which here the devil does allege to persuade Christ,
and everyone else that is the son of God, that they may
safely presume upon His mercy for any thing; for it is written,
'He shall give his Angels charge,' &c.

Which words we must not now handle as if we had David's Psalter
in our hand, and the ninety-first Psalm for our text; for then
perhaps we should work a little higher; but we are to consider
them as they are in the devil's mouth, and here in this place
alleged and perverted for his own purpose, as far as they do,
or do not, concern that which he would have had them; whether
it be so good trustingto God or no, as that if we be
his sons we mayleap over the battlements and bounds that
He hath set us, and throw ourselves headlong into what sin and
danger we please.

I will proceed inthis order, to let you first see
the devil's cunning inalleging any Scripture at all,
'it is written;'

And secondly, his master-cunning in alleging such a choice
and master-piece of Scripture, so full of comfort and promises
as this is, 'He shall give,' &c.

And thirdly, his falsehood in leaving out that which made
against him, for the charge and the promises were that the Angels
should keep him in all his ways; the devil he leaves out that,
and says, they shall keep him howsoever, whether He keep his
ways or not;

And lastly, his fraud and malice in perverting the whole sense
of the text, as if it served to make presumption lawful, and
to rely uponGod's providence for any thing; good reli-gion,
whereas in such cases as these, it was mere devil-divinity. These
four to be ourheads that we take; front whichdivers
other branches will spring, which we mind to reach at as we go
along. Of thesethen, that we may speak to the honour
of Almighty God, and to the edification of our own souls, I shall
desire you to join with me in humble and hearty prayer, &c.

THE BIDDINGOF THE COMMON PRAYERS. Pater Noster

1. 'For it is written,'That is the first thing I propounded,
the devil's cunning to allege Scripture for what he said. [72/73]
To make his temptation take the better, he comes in with hisauthority, and his scriptum est; he will shew you
a place of Scripture for it, a text out of David's Psalms, that
you may see he counsels you to nothing but what the word of God
would bear you out in. When St. Paul would commend a thing, says
he, 'Do I say so? doth not the law say the same?' so says the
devil here, Do I persuade you to this? and doth not the Book
of Psalms commend the same? He speaks not after the manner of
men, he, but he has the Scripture at his fingers' end, so it
is no more he that speaketh, but the Spirit of God That is within
him.

In his first temptation he came like a murmuring malcontent,
without any Scripture in his mouth at all; that would not do;
Christ quotes him a place of Scripture and he was gone. But then
he studies on the matter which way to come again. Scriptum
est? says the devil, It is written ? said Christ so? And
He was acquainted with the Scripture too? Well, then, since Scripture
was so gracious with Him, he could bring in Scripture as well
as Christ; and so bethinking himself presently he throws away
his stones, and gets him a Psalm-book in his hand, puts off his
foul shape of a devil and a murmurer, and gets him into the weeds
of a holy professor, and so with a demure look, and set countenance,
he comes back again this second time to Christ, tells Him that
he had heard Him erewhiles talk of Scripture, and that therefore
he had brought Scripture for him, as liking very well of that
godly course of quoting Scripture for what was said in any thing;
that Hewas deceived in him if he thought him to be an
unlettered man, or one of those that cared not for the Scriptures,
for he had here brought them along with him, and could turn himto the place, and quote Him chapter and verse too for what
he said, 'For it is written, He shall give His Angels charge
over Thee,' &c.

And all these, good words and godly; but when they come out
of a hypocrite's mouth, or a devil's mouth, let them be what
words they will, they are but wind.

It is not this bragging age, nor this vainglorious generation,
that they can quote Scripture so fast, which will carry it away,
for we see the devil reads the Scriptures as well as we, and
he can allege ye Samuel's own words, insomuch that [73/74] they
shall not know him from Samuel; and as for David's Psalms and
ye ask him for them, why he can sing them all by heart, or else
he has them ready with him in his hands; and Christ he knows,
and Paul he knows, he tells them so in the Acts; he was well
acquainted with them, that is to say, that there was neither
Christ in his Gospel, nor St. Paul in his Epistles, but he knew
them very well and could tell what they had preached, and what
they had written too; and yet for all this knowledge in the Scripture
he was no better than a hypocrite and a devil still.

Not that we would patronise any ignorance in this kind, or
discourage them that are studious to know the Scriptures; but
that we would not have them rest there, to think if they had
got that, they had got all, or to use them for a colour to make
the world think they are such goodly professors, when there is
no such matter, to play the hypocrites with them, or bring them
forth to hold argument against Christ, or against his Church,
as you know there are, that so use them; for this is the devil's
way; we see lie can quote Scripture after this manner. And be
this said for the first point, 'It is written.'

II. Second, Now what is written? 'He shall give his Angels
charge over Thee,' &c. A place of the greatest comfort, and
the fittest to make a man presume, that he could have picked
out; and this is the second thing.

It is his subtilty not to choose every Psalm, but one that
should have most comfort, and most grace in it of any other;
the ninety-first Psalm, than which there is not one fuller of
fair promises, whether we regard things for this life, or for
the life; to come. And of this Psalm he takes not every verse,
but takes that which is of as much mercy and grace as any one
thing can be, that of the protection of Angels.

For mark you, what mercies and what promises there are, and
ever have been, in this protection. There shall be Angels ascending
and descending to take care of us as we lay, as in Jacob's ladder.
The Angel of the Lord shall go before us, as he did before the
Israelites; they shall kill up our enemies, round about us, as
they did the Egyptians and other nations; they shall stretch
their wings over us to preserve us, they shall pitch their tents
about our dwellings to defend us, and [74/75] their protection
shall not reach to our heads only, but our very feet shall be
safe, and in their hands they shall bear them up, that they shall
not trip against a stone; they will not warn us only, that there
is a stone in the way, but they will (as Christ said they should)
remove and gather them out of the way for us; and last of all,
that they shall not do all this out of courtesy, or because they
are lovers of mankind, nor shall not at their pleasure leave
off when they list, but by special mandate and charge they are
and shall be bound to do it, they have a precept for it.

All these goodly and gracious promises are comprehended in
this charge and protection of the Angels; and all these doth
the devil here abuse, as we shall see anon.

In the mean while, this is not the only place of mercy that
the devil has got by heart. He came to Christ here, with a Psalm
of mercy, how comes he to us? Marry, with a Psalm of mercy too,
and he will make it out of the New Testament the rather, because
we live not under the Old Law. He will turn Gospeller too; any
thing to bring his ends to pass. His Psalm shall begin Quicumque
crediderit, salvabitur, out of St. Mark, Whosoever will be
saved he must believe rightly, and that is enough. The next verse
shall be out of St. Matthew, Cast your care upon God, for He
careth for you, and then you may cast yourselves where you list.
Another verse out of St. Paul, You are justified by faith, and
Christ hath set you free from the law, come no more under bondage.
And it is not I that make up this Psalm, or pick out these places
for him; look abroad into the world and see whether lie hath
taught a great company of silly men to sing it, whether their
mouths be not readier for these sayings than for any else. Aye,
aye, ye may talk of works, that is it popish argument, but let
a man believe faithfully, and he shall be justified well enough;
we are the free-born sons of God, toil therefore ye shall put
no yoke upon us, for they whom Christ hath set free are free
indeed. Free from what? from good works and obedience to Christ's
law? No; but from sin and the slavery of Satan. So the words
in themselves are indeed the most comfortable sayings that a
Christian can hear, amt most excellent use there is that may
be made of them; but when the devil and a hypocrite get [75/76]
them into their mouthsthere is no listeningafter
them, they are temptations and snares unto men; and what should
have been unto them for their advantage, may quickly become unto
them an occasion of falling,that is, as it is here in
the text, of falling down headlong into sill. And he this said
for the second point; that of all other Scriptures, these which
shouldhave the best use made of them, he and his disciples,
they that learn it of him, (for they can learn it of nobody else,)
make the worst.

Now out of thesetwo we have this use to make, that
to be cunning in Scriptures is no such mark of the child of God
as some men would bear us in hand withal; and that, though the
devil hath indeed a grace with them that are profane, with some
vain youths of the court, ungodly men, to set them a-scoffing
at the Scriptures, and to believe nothing, yet with others that
have the Scriptures in more high reverence, he goes another way
to work, making it unto them (without great heed and care taken)not as it is, initself, the savour of life unto life,
but the savour of death unto death; which God inhis mercy
keep from us all. So I come to the third point.

III. Third, And the third is the fraud and the falsehood that
here the devil uses in his quotation: to leave out the chief
matter of all, the matter that made against him, and the matter,
indeed, whereon all the Angels' chargeis grounded.The Psalm runs, 'He shall give hisAngels chargeover Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways;' and the devil makes
it run, He shallgive his Angels charge over Thee, whether
Thou keep Thy ways or no; leaves that quite out, that keeping
of the ways, for the truth is, it would have spoiled ins whole
temptation. That if any one should take offence and scandal now
by this, that he hears the devil quote Scripture as well as Christ,
and thereforethat nobody knows well what to make of them,
and in his blasphemy say they are divided, and that one Scripture
is on Christ's side, and another on the devil's side, and makes
one of Paul, and another of Apollos, and another of Cephas, and
anotherof any thing; if any man, I say, shall thus be
scandalized by the devil's bringing in of Scripturefor
himself, here is his answer for him, that it is not Scripture
and Scripture, but Scripture and perverted Scripture, that it
seems to he divided.

[76/77] By any means let not such a thought enter into us,
that werea worse mischief than the other; for
as it is a snare to see the devil so ready with Scripture,so it isa worse snare to think that Christ is any
way divided,, and toset the Scriptures together by the
ears. We must know that here the tempter played the devil right,
in leaving out that which would have made all even, that they
might keep Him in all His ways; and had he but quoted that, the
Scriptures have agreed well enough,all had been for Christ,
and no offence need to havebeen taken at them.

But so it is, the devil leaves it out; and so true it is withal,
that as he has a rack for some places of Scripture to stretch
them out upon the tenters, till they crack again, as it is said
of St. Paul's Epistles; so here he has his wrest for other places,
to pullthem in, a device that the musician has to make
the stringsound high or low at his pleasure. He can add
as he sees cause, and he can take away from the word of God contrary
to God's own and express command.

Now let us see us see what cause he had to leave those words
out.Marry, great cause, to bring his own ends about,
for by this great means he would persuade us that the Angels
here had an absolute charge over us, without any limitation at
all, and that they must take care of us, take we what we may
please,cast ourselves down headlong, or an way; no matter
for keeping those ways that God has set us in, to walk uprightly
in them; but keepthem, or not keep them, the Angels shall
keep us however. And thiswas the height of his temptation
and the true reason why he left out those words.

For had he cited them, 'to keep Thee in all thy ways,' a
man would have thought there had been some ways to keep and not
to take a strange headlong way, and throw himself from the pinnacle.
Certain it is that God has made a way down, and if we keep us
not to that, the Angels are discharged of their office from keeping
us, and they will look no more after us. The way from the pinnacle
was to go down the ordinary way by the stairs, that God had appointed
tobe made for that purpose; and not to leap over the
battlements at once, and dash a man'shead against the
stones, in hope that the Angels will hold him up. Shew me where
God ever appointed any such way. This is all in a parable [77/78]
yet; the meaning is, that God has appointed ordinary means for
us to stand and preserve ourselves in the ways of his commandments;
and He will not have Hisprovidence tempted by our wilful
falling into sin and danger; if we will keep us in His ways,
so it is; if not, He is not boundto keep us in
ours. We light upon a fit time for one thing; the time of God's
heavy hand upon tins kingdom by plague and pestilence, and well
it is for them that are troubled with it, to cast themselves
upon God, and to put their whole trust in His mercy, using notwithstanding
those means which He has appointed, and to be as resolute in
a godly courage as Job was in the like case, that though God
would kill him, yet he would trust in him. But for them now that
are not in this danger, not cast into it by God, to cast themselves
into it, to run, as the humour is among some, upon the naked
point of so devouring a sword, and to use no means to avoid it,
but to set up their rest upon a wild conceit of predestination,
that God will work His work, and that men do not well to be so
scrupulous, but if they be appointed to it they shall haveit, and if they have a strong faith (as they say) perhaps
they shall never have it, this is a mere madness, a tempting
of God, and a presuming upon Hisprovidence, without any
warrant but that which the devil signs.

And so in other things throughout a whole Christian man's
life, it is the like case, God will not be grated upon and overleaped
with presumption; He will have us use those means and ways that
He has set us, or else He will not be troubled with us, to acknowledgeus and keep us for Hisown.

In Genesis there is a ladder set from earth to heaven, and
here are degrees and stunts made from the pinnacle to the ground;there the Angels were ascending and descending with us, as
here they are to take charge over us, but yet upon this condition,
that we will keep God's way with them, go up and down by the
degrees of the ladder, and use those means that God has appointed
for us, or else they are gone.

Now here are we gone too, for we would be kept, but we would
be kept in our own ways, nay we would be kept in the way to heaven
too, but then we would willingly have it [78/79] somewhat broader
than it is, that we and our sins might go along together. God'sway is somewhat tedious and troublesome with us, and since
it is but one leap from the pinnacle to the ground, we had rather
venture for that than to be put to go about by so many degrees
and stairs; and if any man tells us that this is a preposterous
way and a wrong cause, and labours to turn us out of it into
a right, we are readyto draw upon him,and threaten
fire and sword; for we will have our own path, and we will not
be kept out of it.

It is an old way Iconfess, as old as Adam in Paradise,
but a great while it lay hid, and at last a little divinity found
it out again, and(by the devil's device) laid it open
for men's easierpassage. St. Paultells us that
of old there were many degreesin Christianity, preaching,
hearing, believing, invocating, all in order, and so foreknowing,
predestinating, calling, justifying, sanctifying, and at last
glorifying, all in order too. Now our new masters would teach
us a shorter cut and make but one degree in all Christianity,
as if there were but one step from the ground to the pinnacle.
They teach a man to take his raise from predestination, and to
give a jump into glorification without any more ado; no matter
for mortification, or justification, or sanctification; they
be no degrees with them; they must not be put to go up and down
the stairs, like other men, for they have a by-way of solitary
faith by themselves, that has but one stride in it, and you are
presently in heaven, or where you would be. And as the devil
brought Scripture here for his way, so do they for theirs; for
they have the Scriptures at will, they say they have it from
St. Paul, that he who is once predestinated is sure enough for
ever; let him go and throw himself which way he will,he
cannot fall, or if he does, the stones shall never hurt him;
if he be the Son of God once, the Angels must have absolute charge
to keep him, for God's children are such darlings, and He doth
so dote upon them, that though they commit never so many downfall
mortal sins, yet they shall be in grace and favour, in the state
of grace still; He will not suffer them in any wise to take the
least hurt that may be. And now let all the world judge whether
this new, be not the devil's divinity.

They tell us of a ladder of faiththat has but one
step in [79/80] it, and they say it is St. Paul's, but an they
remember, there is a ladder of practice too, that has a great
many more in it, and we say it is St. Peter's, beginning where
St. Paul's left, join to your faith virtue, and to your virtue
knowledge, and to your knowledge temperance, and to temperance
patience, and to patience piety, and to piety brotherly love,
&c. There is a way for you now, from the ground to the pinnacle,
and from earth to heaven, the way that the Angels will keep us
in; and if we keep not in this way,we must keep ourselves,
and God knows that will be but a sorry keeping; for the Angels
have no charge over us, save only to keep us in all His ways.
And be this much said for the third point.

IV. Now the perverting of all (which is the fourth and last
thing) and the turning of the sense of David another way, is
plain already and evident by that which hath been said before;
we will say a little more on it yet. In his first temptation,
he would have had stones turned into bread, but he himself here
turns bread into stones, the bread of life, which is the word
of God, to be our bane and utter undoing.

For it is not therefore said, He shall give His Angels charge
over us, that in confidence of their protection we should grate
upon God's providence, and put both Him and his Angels to base
offices, to take us up as oft as we list to fall down. The devil
would make us believe, by his sense, that if we be the sons of
God, run into what needless danger we will, He will never forsake
us: the sense of the Psalm only is, that using the means which
He has appointed, we shall run into no such danger but he will
deliver us from it; from such dangers as cannot be prevented
by man's care and industry, the Angels shall protect us, but
otherwise not.

And therefore when Daniel is bound hand and foot and thrown
into the lions' den, a danger that he was not guilty of, then
indeed it is a time for an Angel to take charge over him, and
to see that no hurt should betide him. When Hagar and Ishmael
are ready to die for drink, then the Angel's time is come to
help them. So when there is no way to pass, then will God divide,
the Red sea; and when no head is to be bread is to be had for
love nor money, then they shall have Angels' food from heaven.
And so if there had been no ladder nor no stairs down the pinnacle,
thou we confess it [80/81] had been a fit time to have been carried
down upon Angels' wings.

But this is at a dead lift, as we say, and when there is no
other means, nor help left but this; for otherwise let the stairs
and the ordinary way be used, a God's name, what should we do
to cast ourselves? We read in the twentieth chapter of Numbers,
that in a place where no water was to be had, there God would
bring it out of a rock; but in the twenty-first chapter, there
where there was water, there every one was to go to his digging,
the princes of the people and all. And in the Gospel, when the
multitudes were ready to perish for hunger, and in a place where
no meat was to be had, that then it was time for Christ to work
a miracle; but afterwards when there was a town nigh that He
took the ordinary way, and sent thither to buy bread; that we
may see when God appoints a means, we must use it; and when there
is no means left, and our own endeavours will not help us, Deus
providebit de monte, Hisprovidence shall be over
us.

Now this is other manner of divinity fetched out of this Psalm
than the devil would have fetched out of it; for by a trick of
concealment, he would have all this passed over, and the words
taken as he delivers them; as if we were to look for a miraculous
providence to keep us, go we which way we would. A rule to make
us take heed of quoting the bare words of Scripture, unless we
have the true sense of it withal.

And be this much said also for the fourth point; we have
pounded so many at first, and this was the last.

There are other things in the text too, that would have somewhat
said to there; as, what is meant by the Angels' hands, and what
by Christ's foot, and what by the stones, and whether every man
hath his Angel-keeper or no, to look to him and protect him.
But these things belong not so properly to this place as to David's
Psalms, where the Prophet's whole intent is to tell us what safety
and sure protection is provided for him that lives a godly life;
but here the devil's intent is to tell us, or to make us believe
at least, what protection and safety is provided for him that
lives an [81/82] ungodly life; and he regards not the circumstance
so much in particular, as the wholescope of the Psalm
in general, to pervert that; and therefore we are to keep
us to this, and not to deal with them here in this place.

So we have seen at large the cost which the devil bestowed
here upon this temptation of our Saviour. And what is this to
usnow? for he shall never have us up to a pinnacle, by
the grace of God we will keep ourselves upon the ground, and
never venture so high for a downfal. Literally we will do so;
but spiritually, there we are on the top with him every day;
and as he tempted Christ, so he talks with us out of a Psalm
of mercy still, making us believe (for if he did this to a green
tree, what will he not do to a dry?) that if we be exalted in
our minds, and have a will to leap into a sin, we need make no
more ado about it, for God is merciful, and all will be well
enough in the end; that to take God's troublesome way is too
long and tedious; that a jump, or a cast over all is a nearer
and a pleasanter way by half; and if we fear any hurt, why God
is our loving Father, and He hath given his Angels charge over
us, that if it be a sin we fall into, they will take us out again
time enough.

I say nomore, than what you see every daydone
yourselves, when men of all sorts are persuaded to follow the
devil up one step of sin, and then another step, and yet another,
and still more till insensibly they come at the top; and when
they are there they must not go down the stairs again, according
to God's appointment, fair and softly, with fear and trembling,
to work out their salvation as St. Paul speaks; but walk on still,
in the high ways of wickedness, and, in hope of God's long-suffering,
defer all till their dying hour comes, and then, that it shall
be enough to commend their souls to the Angels and throw themselves
upon God's mercy, and all will be well. So says the devil; Do
so, tarry there still, and never repent you for the matter; when
you begin to fall, ye shall but whistle for an Angel and he will
come at first, and carry you fair and softly upon his wings;
or else he will bring a fierychariot with him, and carry
you up to heaven in a whirlwind, as he did Elias; and he will
carry you up with a Psalm too, ye shall have music as ye go all
the way up ye shall have a Psalm of mercy [82/83] sung, and what
chargeGod hath given hisAngels over you.

Now if ever the devil came in this likeness, he comes so here,
like an hypocritical pure devil, to tell us of the abundance
of mercy, for no other end but to plunge us into the depth of
misery. For to conclude all, (and it is a strange thing I shall
conclude withal,) the Psalms of mercy are deadly Psalms, not
so in themselves, but made so by the devil's gloss; and therefore
there is no meddling with them, as precious as they be otherwise,
when we have no other interpreter by but him and his disciples.
True it is that God's mercy is over all his works, and that his
mercy endureth for ever; and that He will deal with usaccording
to the multitude of hismercies. But these sayings must
not go alone, there areother sayings to be put into our
Psalter, as well as they; andthereforewe say
in our prayers, that in all our troubles and adversities we may
put our wholetrust and confidence in His mercy (not leaving
there, but going on), and truly serving Him in holiness and purenessof living, to the honour and glory of His name, And thereforethere is mercy with Thee, saith the Prophet; for what? that
Thoumayest he abused and grated on? no, but that Thou
mayest be feared; and blessed are they that fear Thee, and put
their trust in Thy mercy. When they go both together, God's mercy
and our endeavours, they go right; for David's Psalms will sing
of mercy amid judgment, andwe must look that not mercy
alone, but mercy and truth must meet together in us; that if
our Psalm-book sounds of nothing but mercy, and of the charge
of Angels, we may know whoput it into our hands. But
if the truth be inus, we shall have mercy shewed upon
us; and if we keep God's wayin righteousness and holiness,
we shall have God's Angels to keep us, to keep us in all His
ways, till righteousnessand peace kiss each other, which
will be in his eternal kingdom of peace. To which kingdom He
bring us, &c.